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Bale: Ref mistakes costly, but Real not good enough

Gareth Bale admitted Real Madrid were not good enough in their Champions League defeat to Wolfsburg but felt the referee made two crucial mistakes.

Ten-time European Cup winners Real were beaten 2-0 in the first leg of their quarter-final tie in Germany after conceding twice in eight first-half minutes.

Ricardo Rodriguez’s penalty gave the hosts an advantage that was added to by Maximilian Arnold’s close-range finish.

“Obviously we expected to win the game but things like this can happen in football,” Bale told BT Sport after the game.

“We know it wasn’t a great performance tonight but we know it’s only halfway through and we’ve got time to put it right.”

It could have been a very different night for the visitors had Cristiano Ronaldo not been adjudged offside when he had the ball in the net 70 seconds in.

Bale was then denied a penalty despite Luiz Gustavo clattering into him in the box before Wolfsburg benefited from a debatable call in the box at the other end as it was deemed Andre Schurrle had been tripped by Casemiro.

“I’ve been told it wasn’t offside so there’s that and right at the start of the game I’ve had a clear penalty on me that wasn’t given,” Bale added.

“Things haven’t gone for us tonight but, no excuses, we weren’t good enough tonight. We have another game to put it right.”

This result for Zinedine Zidane’s men came just four days after they had won at the Nou Camp with 10 men, yet Bale denied that result had affected their performance in Germany.

“We’ve had time to recover,” the Welshman added.

“We just weren’t good enough tonight. It happens in football, it happens all the time. We need to make sure come the second leg that we’re on it and win by three goals.”

Wolfsburg midfielder Julian Draxler thought the home side’s character helped them defeat their star-studded opponents.

“We know that we can play football,” he noted.

“We are not on the same level as Real but the key was the fighting spirit today that we had on the pitch. I’m really proud of the team and how we can manage that. The same game is needed in the second leg again.”